Beifong Week 2015
by demoisellecamille
Summary: A collection of one-shots written for tumblr's Beifong Week
1. Chapter 1

Beifong Week Day One: Prove It

"I _deserved _that promotion!" Lin Beifong screamed as she slammed her fists on the table. She had been working on high-profile kidnapping case for quite some time now, capturing the culprits and retrieving the victim just in time before they took her away to the South Pole.

Toph Beifong just stared at her daughter with her blind, milky eyes.

"Aren't you even going to say anything?" she fumed.

Toph knew about the case – in fact, she had been diligently following it from start to finish. Lin was amazingly dedicated, she found out, and through discreet inquiries, the Chief found out that her daughter doesn't have qualms about striking some deals _outside_ of the law to come up with leads. It was admirable, yes – but Toph didn't want her daughter – _and any officer_, for that matter, to go around spreading breadcrumb trails of shady deals that could be used against the police later. It was a lesson she was trying to teach Lin.

Seeing that her outburst didn't even make her mother flinch, Lin groaned and slumped on the floor, her armor noisily clanking against the cold stone. "Fuck this!" she screamed again and again.

Outside the office, a rookie cop looked with concern at the door. There was so much noise coming from the Chief's office, and he thought it was a matter of great concern. "W-what's going on?"

A colleague handed him a cup of coffee. "Just some mother-daughter lovin' – you'll get used to it," he laughed.

"I deserved that promotion, Mother – and who did you give it to? You gave it to Xiao! He didn't even _want_ the job! He didn't even give a shit –"

Toph stood abruptly, a frown disturbing her cool, icy features. "_STAND DOWN, OFFICER. YOU ARE ADDRESSING THE CHIEF. CONDUCT YOURSELF PROPERLY_."

"Mom –"

"_Chief,_" Toph corrected. "Do you want to know why I didn't give you the promotion? Your partner reported to me how you met with some Triad hoodlums and offered them _temporary_ _protection_ if they would rat out the crooks you were chasing after. Tell me, Officer Beifong – since when has it been acceptable to –"

"The others have done it!"

Toph slammed her palms on the table. "_JUST BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE DONE THE SAME DOES NOT MEAN IT IS ACCEPTABLE! _I have _given_ my _whole life_ to keep this city safe for everyone. Do you have _any idea_ how a deal such as the one you just struck could be used against you? Against the whole force? Do you know what the repercussions of your bull-headedness could be? _DO YOU_?!"

Lin looked at her mother. Rarely did Toph Beifong lose her calm, especially at work, but now it seemed like she was genuinely upset, and Lin's actions seemed to have struck a nerve. "Honestly, I… I wasn't able to think – I – I thought it was a good idea – at – at the time."

Toph regained her composure and was quiet once more.

Sighing, Lin rose to leave. "I – I have to leave. See you later, Mo – _Chief_."

She was almost at the door when Toph spoke up. "You say you deserve a higher rank?"

Lin nodded. She didn't to tell her mother hoe badly she wanted to be promoted, after all.

"Catch –"

She turned her back just in time to catch a thick case file in her hands.

Toph smirked. "Prove it."


	2. Flowers

Every year during the summer, there's a certain day when my mom would take a break from work, dress nicely, and go out. No, it's not my birthday, but something else. Mom has been doing it for as long as I can remember, and I never really thought of asking her why - it's just how it's always been, I guess.

I never really asked - until Tenzin brought it up.

"Where does your mom go when she takes a day off from work and leaves you here?"

I shrugged. "I don't know - maybe she watches theater or something."

"Watches... Theater?" He looked at me in disbelief. "Your mom is blind."

"Hey - watch it, airhead. My mom can see perfectly well through her feet."

Tenzin considered it for a while. Sometimes, he forgets that we Beifongs are some of the greatest earthbenders in the world. My mother learned the art with the help of badgermoles, and she knew how to use her senses to an extreme advantage. Tenzin doesn't know it, but mom is training me the same way. "Well it's not the same, because she cannot see how the actors look like," he added.

"Fair point."

From inside the house, I could hear my sister crying. Suyin is quite a handful, even for Aunt Katara. I honestly don't know how mothers deal with kids - all they do is cry and shriek and be all-around brats. I'm only thirteen, but I sure as hell won't want kids when I'm older.

"What if we follow your mom?" Tenzin asked.

I scoffed at his suggestion. "Follow her? You're kidding, right? She'd hear us for sure."

"Not if we fly," Tenzin said, smiling that goofy smile of his. "Come on, Lin. Your mom hasn't been gone that long - if we fly on Oogi, I'm sure we can catch up on her."

It sounded like a good idea. "Fine."

Flying is fine, but I really don't prefer it as a mode of transport. Airships are okay - they're solid and made of metal, so I'm never completely out of my element. Flying atop a furry sky bison, however, is a completely different thing. I couldn't feel anything under my feet but the saddle and Oogi's heartbeat. I've gotten used to it over the years, thanks to Tenzin - but I would choose cars and ships over sky bison anytime.

"Hey - there she is," he said, pointing downward. I saw my Mom leaving a flower shop, carrrying a big bouquet of purple cosmos in her hand. "What's she doing with all those flowers?"

"Can we go lower?"

Tenzin shook his head. "I can't - Oogi feels uneasy near the ground. I think the noise of the vehicles scares him."

"Can we go faster then?"

"Sure."

We flew quite some distance behind my mother, stopping only when she entered another shop. Tenzin took out his glider.

"Hey - are you going down there?"

"Uh-huh," he replied. "Oogi, stay put."

What was mom doing with the flowers? She wasn't fond of them - in fact, she thought they should remain attached to the plant, rooted in the earth, so they could thrive and live.

Tenzin flew up. "Your mom just bought some incense - she's headed to the memorial park."

Memorial park? We don't have relatives buried there. Perhaps mom is visiting a friend. Maybe a colleague who's really close to her. This is really getting weird.

Tenzin urged Oogi on, and we followed Mom to the far end of the memorial park. I have no idea how she found her way through rows upon rows of gravestones, but somehow, she did. I guess it was because she had been doing it for so long.

Hovering a few feet behind her, Tenzin and I saw Mom bend away the dirt and dust that had settled onto the polished black gravestone. She then lit the incense, waved it a few times in front of her, and bowed her head. Mom wasn't a very spiritual person - and I was quite surprised to see her praying for someone. Whoever it was, he or she must've been really special to her.

Mom removed the paper wrapping around the bouquet and set the flowers down. Then she sat right in front of the gravestone and began to talk. Using his airbending, Tenzin made the sound of my mother's voice clearer for us to hear.

"Hey," she began. "Sorry I came late - I got held up at home, but... I'm here now. So - happy birthday! I hope you're happy wherever you are -"

"Who's buried in there?" Tenzin asked.

"I have no idea, so shut up, Ten."

"- she's a good girl, very smart," Mom continued. "One day, we would have to tell her about you."

She then went quiet, and from the looks of it, began to cry a little. Tenzin was about to tell me something, but I waved my hand in front of him so he'd keep mum.

A few moments later, Mom brought her hand up against the stone and began tracing patterns on it - perhaps the dead person's name. She rose and smoothed her clothes. "Until next year, then. I got you your favorite flowers, by the way - boy are they expensive!" With one last look and a barely audible goodbye, mom left.

When both of us were sure that Mom was far away, Tenzin found a patch of grassy land for Oogi to land on, and we both made our way to the gravestone.

It looked like all the other gravestones in the cemetery, except that it was made of polished black stone and that it had the emblem of the Metalbending Police. "Oh - so it was a colleague, after all. And he was fond of cosmos."

Tenzin was eyeing the characters on the gravestone. He was tracing them in the air using his finger, and his motions made the smoke from the incense curl up into tendrils and little spirals. "Lin, could you help me read this?"

"Kan... To? I don't know - I'm kinda unclear on the second character, Ten."

"Kanto," Tenzin repeated. I'm sure he's going to check this out when he gets home. "Well - you wanna go?"

"Yeah."

Kanto, huh? I'm sure if Mom wanted me to know, she would've told me a long time ago - but why would she? Work is work, family is family. Two separate things - and my mother is good at keeping things separate.

Whoever this Kanto is, I won't ask her.

It's just how it's always been.


	3. Cake

She stepped into her apartment, not caring to switch the lights on before making her way to the sofa. Red and orange lights filtered through the glass windows, bathing the living room in a soft dim glow. Lin Beifong placed a small cardboard box on her coffee table and undressed in the dark.

Even at forty years old, Lin looked young – sure, there were a few stray gray hairs on her head, and wrinkles starting to show on her face, but everyone would agree that Republic City's Chief of Police has aged gracefully.

Lin sat on the worn sofa, closed her eyes and stretched her long, shapely legs. Nights such as these were rare, almost non-existent, for Lin Beifong. Since entering the police force at eighteen, the closest thing she's ever had to a vacation was a week-long stay at the hospital after a particularly bloody encounter with the triads. Cracking her knuckles, she rose to turn the lights on, taking the cardboard box with her to the kitchen.

As she rummaged around the fridge for something to cook, Lin recalled how, years ago, she would come home to a piping-hot meal, a perfectly-chilled glass of tea, and a broad, sturdy shoulder to lean on. "Silly woman," she muttered as she got some beef, frozen solid, from the freezer.

She'll be having spicy stir-fry tonight.

Lin stashed the meat in a pan and ran hot water over it, to thaw it out quickly. Soon, the sound of a knife rapidly chopping vegetables filled the empty apartment; it was followed by the savory aroma of garlic and onions sautéing in sesame oil and the tempting sizzle of beef rendering in its own fat in a red-hot wok. Like all busy people, Lin had no time to cook for herself – most of the time she would buy some takeout from a nearby noodle stand, or content herself with sandwiches and cold cuts – but when she found the time to cook, just like tonight, Lin made sure she's going to cook something special for herself.

"Perfect," she said, wincing as the spicy sauce from the stir-fry whizzed down her throat. She quickly turned the stove off, scooped some of the fluffy white rice onto a bowl, and sat down for her meal.

Lin ate in perfect silence, with only the sound of her chopsticks tapping against the porcelain to break the monotony. Though not quite finished with dinner yet, she reached for the cardboard box and opened it carefully.

Inside it was a small chocolate cake Lin bought from a bakery along the way. She had no idea if people remembered, or if they even cared, but it's not like she would waste her time thinking about it.

Lin closed her eyes and smiled.

"Happy birthday, Lin."

* * *

_**A/N:** I had to upload this early because I'll be away for two days. :( This story made me really sad. _


	4. Joke

Toph listened on, pretending to nap as her daughters, four year-old Suyin and ten year-old Lin, were talking to each other. Hearing them talk without screaming or shrieking at each other was a welcome relief for their mother – the two girls hardly went through a day without fighting over something as petty as a soap dish.

"Yin-yin," Suyin lisped, "I 'ave a joke!"

Toph heard her elder daughter giggling. Lin was exactly like her mother – abrasive and stubborn – but she was also quite serious and brooding, preferring to spend her time reading or training earthbending all alone. She watches over her sister, as her mother told her to, but when all three of them are at home, Lin preferred to lock herself up in her room and be quiet as a ghost. Right now, however, she was obviously enjoying her time with her younger sister.

"Okay," Lin laughed. "What's your joke?"

"What is a pig with a fork?"

"What?"

Suyin clapped. "A poo poo!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I 'ave another joke, Yin-yin!"

Lin was trying to steady herself – her sister had just started school, and already she was cracking jokes so bad they were funny. She wondered where Suyin got them – as far as Lin knew, the only guy to crack corny jokes in their family was Tenzin's Uncle Sokka. "Go ahead, Su – tell me!"

"A guy was at a shop he brought some lobsters and said to the man: aaaaaah! It's a crab," Suyin leaned towards her sister, then whispered: "And the other man said, 'that's not a crab, it's a orange pencil."

"What?" Lin giggled as she helped her little sister up. "Come now, you have to get your afternoon nap."

Suyin pouted. "But Mommy said – "

"Mom's napping too, Su," she interrupted. "So you gotta get your afternoon nap and then Mom said we could go to Aunt Katara's and play."

"Okay – but I 'ave another joke," Suyin smiled.

"Fire away."

"Yin-yin, do you like ice cream?" she asked.

Lin failed to see the joke, but she humored her little sister nonetheless. "Yeah, of course."

"If you like it so much, why don't you marry it?"

Both girls were startled as they heard their mother heartily laughing from her room.

Suyin looked at her sister. "Mom is acting funny."

"I know."


	5. Rain

It was grey, dreary day outside and little Lin Beifong was all holed up in her mother's office, still wearing her school uniform. Classes had been suspended at the last minutes owing to the inclement weather, and her mother, Chief Toph Beifong, had no other choice but to bring her five-year old kid to work.

Presently the little girl amused herself by counting the automobiles that passed by her mother's office window. It was raining so hard, all Lin could see were blurry silhouettes and headlights made dim by the steady downpour. She watched as the few unfortunate souls that were out in the rain huddled in their coats, trying to keep warm, if not dry. "No fun," Lin whispered. "No fun at all."

Toph looked up from her reading – which meant raised dots on paper for her – and tilted her head towards her daughter. "What did you say?"

"It's not fun being here," Lin replied.

Toph had to agree – even the bustling police headquarters was unusually quiet that day, and all she could hear was the constant drumming of the rain against the building, and the rattling of the windows whenever the wind blew. The quiet, rather comforting atmosphere coupled with the cold weather made her rather sleepy, too – and the absence of her daughter's usual chatter did little to shake away Toph's drowsiness.

Lin stretched on the office couch and sighed. "I want to go home, Mommy."

Her mother yawned and left her reading to join her daughter on the couch. "We can't go home because the weather is bad, darling. And besides, I have four more hours left on my shift."

"So?"

"So we have to stay here until the rain lets up or until my shift ends – whichever comes first," Toph replied. "Since I'm not doing anything else, let's go find something fun to do – how about we pretend we're pirates?"

Lin shook her head.

"No? What about hide and seek?"

"We'll find each other easily, Mommy!" she replied.

Toph shrugged. Of course they'll find each other easily – Lin's seismic sense is almost at par with hers – and besides, there was no way they could play hide and seek without it ending with the two of them hurling rocks at each other – or filing cabinets, now that Lin can metalbend. "Okay – so what do you want to do?"

"Tell me a story," Lin said. "I don't want scary ones, Mommy, because we only tell those during Fridays and it's a Tuesday today. I want a happy story."

"A happy story, huh? Let me think of one first." Toph wasn't much of a storyteller, but during the rare moments that Lin asked her for a story, as kids her age were wont to do, she made sure she had one ready. "Okay – come here, pup. Let me tell you a story."

Lin eagerly crawled onto her mother's lap, making herself comfortable against the cold steel of her mother's armor.

_Once there was a princess –_

"Was she pretty?"

Toph smiled. "Everyone told her she was pretty, Lin – but she had no idea because she was blind."

Lin pouted. "Well, if she was blind, she should be an earthbender. If she's not an earthbender, she won't be able to care for herself."

"Okay."

_So, there was once a beautiful, blind warrior earthbender princess who lived with parents, the king and the queen, in a faraway land. Even though the king and queen gave her whatever she asked for, the princess was sad because they would not let her out of the palace to –_

"She should earthbend herself out of the palace!" Lin added.

"That's exactly what she did," Toph said.

_They wouldn't allow her to go out and have friends, so the princess used her bending to get out of the palace. Outside, she met three people who became her closest friends. Together with them, the princess brought down an evil ruler and saved the whole world._

"How?"

"She wrecked the bad guys' airships."

"_Wow._ Can I wreck airships, too?"

"Sure, pup – wreck all the airships you want when you grow up," Toph smiled.

_After saving the world, the princess went on her own way and began sharing her talents to other people. She explored the world for a long time, but soon she realized that she was getting very lonely._

_Packing up her things, the princess decided to join her friends once more._

"Does she have lots of friends?"

Toph gently shook her head. "Well, she met a few new friends along the way, but she went back to the friends who saved the world with her."

_When they got together once more, the princess and her friends decided to build a city where everyone could live in peace and harmony._

_Because she was a powerful earthbender, the princess decided that she would take care of all the people in the city. She made sure that everyone was safe and secure. It was in this city where she met Kan – I mean, the captain._

Lin shifted on her seat. "What does the captain look like?"

"Well – the princess can't tell, because she was blind. But the captain was very tall, and he had a deep, beautiful voice that sounded like the rumbling earth," Toph smiled.

_The captain and the princess became very good friends, and soon enough they fell in love. Even though the princess was mean to him, the captain was very kind to her – and he gave her all he had because he loved the princess very much._

"Did she love him, too?"

Toph looked up and smiled, absent-mindedly stroking her daughter's hair.

"Mommy?"

"Oh, yeah – where was I?"

"The captain loved the princess even if she was mean – but did the princess love him too?"

"She did… _very much_."

"And then?"

_They got married soon enough, and everyday they prayed for the spirits to give them a baby so that they may love and care for her as well._

_The spirits, seeing how much the princess and captain loved each other, decided to grant their wish. A year after they were married, the princess discovered that she was going to have a baby soon – and because her tummy was getting bigger and bigger, everybody decided that it was time for the captain to take over for a while._

Lin placed a hand on her mother's chest, feeling the subtle change in Toph's heartbeat. "Are you okay? Why are you sad?"

"The story makes me sad," Toph sniffed.

_One day, bad men took the captain away. Despite her condition, the princess went out and looked for him. Soon, they found the captain – but he was badly beaten up and was really sick._

_The princess took him to her healer friend, but even her friend's exceptional powers of healing could do nothing for the captain except lessen his pain._

"They –" Lin yawned, "- should have gone to Auntie Katara. One time, Ten-ten broke his arm, and Auntie fixed it right away."

_The princess once again prayed to the spirits. 'Please save my husband,' she cried. _

_But the spirits weren't kind this time, and before the moon was full, they too, took the captain away. The princess never saw him again. Naturally, the princess was heartbroken, and her heart was aching so bad she thought she might die._

"I thought it was a happy story," Lin told her. "The princess should be happy in the end."

Toph wiped a tear from her eye. "It is, sweetheart."

_After the captain died, the princess gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who brought sunshine and happiness and love back to her life. The baby girl grew up to be just like her mother, and the princess was never lonely ever again._

"The end. Did you like it?" she asked.

"Did the baby love the princess?"

"Uh-huh."

"Good – because baby girls should love their mommies. I love you, Mommy," Lin said, kissing her mother's cheek.

"I love you too, baby," Toph said as she closed her eyes and allowed the steady drum of raindrops calm her down. Someday, Lin would ask her the inevitable, and she hoped she'd be strong enough to tell her the truth.


End file.
